This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

We’re back, and right at the possible end of volume 105 for some big reveals and a nice little bit of action to round out the book. That last page has me feeling like mysteries that have been building for most of my lifetime are creeping closer to being resolved.

We get another Film Red colour spread to kick things off. It’s weirdly late from the movie’s release date, but two sets of colour pages has been the standard for movie promos since Film Gold. One for Oda’s illustrated film poster, which we had in the last volume, and another more traditional colour spread featuring characters from the movie. And though the two feel far apart in this case, they’re actually closer together than Film Gold’s poster and spread were, at least in terms of number of chapters. And everything else aside, it actually lines up well with international release dates. Having the spread be just a series of close-up panels definitely feels flat compared to normal One Piece spreads. Some of the character pairings are surprising, but I haven’t had a chance to see the movie yet, so there’s probably stuff I’m missing about who interacts with who during it.

Glad to see some lingering questions being tied up in the first scene. I would have loved to have seen the negotiation that bought Caribou his passage on the Sunny, locked up in a barrel. Zoro is also being very pragmatic here. And with Brook around he shouldn’t have too much trouble reaching the others in an emergency. You’d hope so, anyway.

I’m very intrigued by what Lilith said about the island being powered by fire. It definitely seems like she doesn’t mean solar, given the talk of making a sun, and the comment about an eternal flame can only lead me to think of the ancient Lunarians. This is one to stick a pin in.

The Seraphim Jinbe reveal is a great moment, and the fight that follows is a lot of fun. Does Usopp really think Jinbe would have a son he just never mentioned to the crew? And I wonder what colour this thing is actually going to be, splitting the difference between Fishman blue and Lunarian tan for the skin tone. I love seeing the crew go all in with their top level techniques right off the bat. Well, maybe Nami held back a little. But still, I appreciate when former finishing moves can be just a part of a characters’ toolset instead of something they only get access to in special situations. They make a good showing, but I can see now why the World Government was so confident in the Seraphim as a replacement for the Warlords. Lunarian speed/durability buffs, laser beams and additional Devil Fruits are a whole lot of buffs to put on top of clones of already-powerful individuals.

And fake Jinbe seemingly having access to Senor Pink’s fruit is something that has my mind buzzing. Is this another example of Vegapunk replicating a fruit’s ability artificially, like they did with Borsalino’s laser? The holograms and Atlas’s gloves and the door Lilith and the crew just entered through show that they’re experimenting with tangibility, which feels in a similar ballpark to treating any surface like a liquid. But at the same time, Pink was presumably arrested with the rest of the Doflamingo family, so the Government could very easily have access to his fruit if they wanted to execute him for it. I wonder, in that case, how Franky would feel to learn the scientist he looked up to was complicit in the death of the man he promised to share a drink with. And seeing one Seraphim with a devil fruit raises the question of what powers the others will have. The young Hancock showed no sign of her trademark power, but it’s hard to imagine the likes of her, Crocodile or Doflamingo without their abilities. What kind of mixing and matching are we doing to see here?

Another throwaway line that has my attention: the mention of green blood during the monitoring of the Seraphim’s fight. That can’t be something they picked up from the Lunarians, we’d have heard about it during the King fight. When one of these things takes a real hit, is it actually going to be green inside? That’s not going to show particularly well in a black and white manga, is it?

We also get the last handful of Vegaclones this week. Shaka, Edison and Pythagoras are all really likable designs. York is too, but hits way too close to Oda’s standard Nami/Bonney/Lilith looks, even with her rounder cheeks. The interplay between the group is where the idea to split the scientist up really shines. Vegapunk didn’t create six copies of themself, they really are one person split into six parts, with the different pieces taking on bodily functions and emotional regulation for the whole group, allowing the scientist parts to function unimpeded by the human stuff the rest of us have to deal with. It’s a very clever setup.

Love Usopp wondering if he could be a Vegapunk too. Great gag.

But it’s obviously the final spread that steals the show in this one. Advanced technology from the past. Am I shocked? No. Finding out what was up with the robots and ruins on the moon has ranked among my most anticipated One Piece answers for like a decade now. But I’m so excited to finally be talking about it. Finding out with near-certainty that the Ancient Kingdom wiped out by the World Government in the Void Century was the one with the spacefaring tech was always a reasonable guess, but it’s one more thing we can all connect on our corkboards now. And that’s quite a viking-looking machine in the last panel. Something to do with giants, perhaps? But to a giant, that would be more of a power suit than a super robot. The upper arms are too thin for a humanoid of proportionate size to wear it though. So was the robot inspired by the giants, or were the giants inspired by the robots? Whatever the case, the art on this page is absolutely breathtaking.

I can’t wait to see how Oda builds on this all next week as we start moving into the vague ballpark of volume 106.